except a big brown horse, Toss-up, by Velocipede, out of Delphine; Lawyer Ford had patronised him, and had a neatish two-year old by him, called Heads or Tails. Rococo, the nag "wot" was to have won a Derby, but for breaking his fore-leg, is somewhere thereabouts and his stock are coming out. One only, a little chesnut filly called Indolence, has as yet appeared on the green sward. By far the finest stud in the neighbourhood, and not surpassed by any in the kingdom, is the well-managed, and I doubt not, well paying stud of Mr. Thornhill's at Riddlesworth. To any lover of the horse a journey is well repaid by a sight even of Emilius alone. It generally happens, that when expectation of something very fine possesses one's mind, disappointment in the object itself is the result. This, however, is not the case in the inspection of this deservedly noted horse. He is a race-horse of the highest form all over, his colour dark brown, without white, and he possesses great substance with his exquisite symmetry. Though twentyone years old he shows no signs of age, and no doubt may for many years to come fill as large a space in the Racing Calendar as he has done for so many years. To omit the great years when Priam, Plenipo, Oxygen, and Mango placed to his account so much fame and wealth, I will just take the four last years, in which the amount of money gained by his and his son's progeny exceeds all others, not even forgetting the two Selim cracks, Sultan and Langar, who fill the next in the lists of fame.

space

But perhaps it may not be uninteresting to place the sums won in each of these years against one another in comparison; though be it remembered that to neither of the three are these years by any means the best, as in Emilius's case the four years above mentioned. In Sultan's, Bay Middleton's, Galata's and Greenmantle's, and Vespa's, and in Langar's, Elis's year were the crack ones.

Emilius's sons and grandsons have thus netted in stakes during the last four years the large sum of £66,330, more than doubling the value of stakes, £31,792, won by the progeny of Sultan and his sons; and trebling the winnings of Langar's sons, £22,890. This latter horse, whose stock have for so many years run well, and particularly distinguished themselves for speed, from the year 1828 (the first year of his stock coming out) to 1841, shows a list of racers in the Calendar, whose successes have realised to their owners £52,115.

Perhaps there has never been an animal, who himself ran better, and handed down to his posterity the same power as the crack nag of Riddlesworth, since the Whalebones and Waxys. Besides winning

the Derby himself, two Derbys, one Oaks, and a Leger, are amongst the gains of his produce. Besides which, with Euclid there was a dead heat for the Leger; with Riddles worth, who ran second, there ought to have been another Derby added to his laurels; and Preserve, second for the Oaks, would in nine out of ten years have been the first. Priam in one year won fourteen races of the collective value of £11,205, as large a sum as ever fell to the lot of one horse. Alas! for the day that he crossed the Atlantic, and left behind him a vacuum not easily supplied. With Miss Letty, Industry, and Crucifix, he won the Oaks almost three consecutive years, and in the last named year he had the honour of running first and second with the above mare and Welfare; another of Emilius's granddaughters, Teleta, being third.

NO. XIV.-VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

N

In America, Monarch and the Queen (both out of Delphine, by Whisker), have astonished the Yankees, who now very properly hold their Sire above all price.

Contrary to established rules I have been singing the praises of an individual in his life time, a deed better summed up when he is gone to earth; and as such a fertile subject might be carried on "ad infinitum," I must hold hard and cast back. Euclid was put to the stud this and had several of Mr. Thornhill's mares stinted to him. year, For the season, 1842, he is to stand at Tickhill Castle, and if trust may be placed in shape and make, he will get racers as well as hunters. His place is filled by a young horse, the Commodore, by Liverpool, out of Fancy, by Osmond, the nag, who but for an unlucky kick from his stable companion, Kremlin, was to have won the St. Leger in Charles the Twelfth's year. His fore-legs tell a different tale, and might also have stopped him, and his fore-hand is not very prime. Albemarle, by Young Phantom, a fine brown horse, is also a stud horse there, and his foals are very lengthy and racing-like. The mares and foals of this year are a very good lot. Out of the thirty-four mares there are very few indifferent; while such as old Shoveller, with her five daughters, Mercy, Earwig, Moorhen, Erica, and Merganser; and Tarantella, Bravura, Variation, Mustard, Maria, Chinchilla, and Mangelwürzel with her two daughters, Egeria and Empress, are of a sort not every day to be met with, and such as must add profit to pleasure in breeding, which is no doubt the case with the Riddlesworth stud.

The hunting season now so fully occupies the attention of the sporting world, that racing matters seem somewhat out of place in the beginning of a year. My omnium gatherum being for the present wound up, I must add in conclusion my hopes that the new year will turn out the New Sporting Magazine in its present good form—and may it hold as steadily on its way as in the year that is gone. With the ribands in good hands the green coach should load well, and without wishing to run other teams off the road, should take the lead and keep it. RED ROVER.

THE ICE.

They sweep,

On sounding skates, a thousand different ways,
In circling poise, swift as the winds, along.

The then gay land is madden'd all to joy."-THOMPSON.

WHEN there comes a good lasting frost, the diversions on the ice throughout the fens of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, bid fair to rival the games of all other counties, which in the summer and

autumn are equally alert at football, cricket, wrestling, and single stick. Prizes in money, beef, pigs, mutton, hats, and gloves, are contended for over river, mere, and flood, and the surrounding population of Chatteris, Ramsey, St. Ives, Whittlesea, Thorney, and Peterborough, flock to the races, as eagerly as ever did spectators crowd to Epsom, Doncaster, and Newmarket. All business in the country being in a manner at a stand still, gives ample time to farmer, grazier, labourer, merchant, and waterman, tradesman, and " apprentice bold," to contend for, or witness the contention for the various rewards which are produced from voluntary subscriptions, and free donations. We are old enough to have seen the two Staples, with Perkins, Young, Egar, Dyall, and Blake, contend with each other over many a course, and although they are now to be regarded as veterans, and may be said to be laid on the shelf,-we have seen none fleeter nor more untiring in the present generation of crack runners. Perkins was the fastest man in England for one mile, which he has repeatedly run in two minutes and twenty seconds. The two Staples have often challenged all England for 100 guineas, over a twomile course, and Young and Egar may be said to have been equally good in their line. The frost having put a stop to fox-hunting, Earl Fitzwilliam and some of his family were on Whittlesea Mere one day in December, 1841, and seeing some fleet performances, the noble Earl gave a purse to be run for a few days afterwards. This was no less a sum than £10, and accordingly, on the 30th, the mere was thronged with spectators; it is estimated that ten thousand persons at least were present. The prize was carried away by Mr. Sharman, of Holme. Tomlin, of Doddington, who was the conqueror of Sharman on the day when the Earl first graced the ice with his presence, having kept back, after winning several heats, in expectation of carrying off a better prize the following day at Chatteris. The prizes were contended for by sixteen runners, heats-two in a heat, and so on until the two best are ultimately brought out together. The distance being two miles, was done in six minutes and a half by the fleetest pair, which is good work considering that there was a wind one way of the course, which makes the labour still greater,-affecting skating more than bad ice, or anything besides. The day was unusually fine, clear, and frosty: aud as the sun shone forth in all his brilliancy, the dazzling snow upon the distant hills, the various flocks of wild fowl in the air, and the thousands of moving men over an expanse of three miles square of ice, presented a panorama most interesting and grand. A lady, whose name did not reach us, whose age appeared to be about two and twenty, and whose graceful and speedy movements were the admiration of hundreds, perhaps thousands, was one of the pleasing novelties of the day. Many will remember to have seen Miss Ullett skate, and she was one

of the belles of the ice; but the fair unknown was equally fleet, graceful and enchanting. Then there were flags waving, and the trumpet sounding with " pies all hot," and "Buckle's gin and brandy;" in short, most of the fancies, though less of the vices that throng the racecourse and the betting room. Betting, too, ran high, for men will bet when there is race, be it of horses, ponies, or even asses, and some hundreds changed hands among the many wealthy sons of agriculture, who had come miles in gigs and on horseback, to witness the contests of the day. At length night approached, and the last heat being over, the many thousands, as with one impulse and motion separated, and a curious sight it was to behold five hundred or a thousand men on skates, moving off in droves towards the various towns and villages throughout the surrounding country. Since that day many races have been run, but the rivers and drains approaching the Mere, have now become deeply covered with snow, as has the Mere itself, and consequently not only is it in a manner unapproachable to all, except those who have horses and carriages (sledges perhaps were the better word, of which we saw several), but the Nene itself being ankle deep in snow, except over a swept course, it is a question if the immense crowd of 1841, with all its spirit-stirring accompaniments, be equalled in this present season. N. W.

A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMING RACING

SEASON.

BY UNCLE TOBY.

Ar this period of the year, when the racing man's "pleasing occupation" is almost entirely confined to speculating upon the good things to come, a few observations upon the appointments for the ensuing campaign may not be deemed out of place in the pages of the New Sporting Magazine. To the general reader of the sheet Racing Calendar, a most glorious improvement in subscriptions to the different meetings at once catches the eye; and the now common and highly judicious mode of conveying horses by caravans and railroads, have greatly benefitted many of our provincial meetings. The popularity of the great sporting handicaps seems even now to be on the increase, and it behoves the stewards of the different provincial meetings to select with the greatest care, persons strictly competent and highly impartial to fix the weights. I would strongly impress upon the minds of the committee of management at the country meetings the impolicy of setting the weights at such a long date before the event is to come off, as in many instances one error has completely crippled the accep